I guess, but it's still a bad idea to use credit card info in a security scheme. It's dumber than dumb that the cell company would do that. Who's to say the employee on the other end of the phone doesn't just rip the numbers on the spot and go on a spree? Credit card fraud happens all the time, I know, but that shouldn't be an excuse for lax security. Your choice, but I'd stay away from the credit card encoding option myself, regardless of whether or not the customers don't mind.

I like FCCovett's scheme. Try out the demo. If you like it, you can purchase access to the full version download. I did that once when I bought a program a few years ago and it didn't bother me at all. You still gotta put in a serial number, but I think it slows pirating down a little when users have to actually go to a warez site to download the whole game, instead of just finding a serial number to unlock the demo.

Also, I think the old "phone-home-for-bad-serial-numbers-if-the-internet-connection-is-on" routine seems rational as well. The only problem with this is that you need to ensure that the user won't sit there waiting for a time out if your site goes down or you effectively go out of business and no longer have a site. I suppose the check could be put in another thread and watched to see if it completed in a few seconds.

If you have online high scores, you could only allow a small list of names to come from a certain serial. That way, the pirate with the copied serial will be frustrated that they can't add a score in and even if they know the names to use... it won't be their own. This has a couple problems, but it just occurred to me, so I thought I'd share.

The overall idea here is to give a server-side incentive, similar to what is used by online games (like Battlefield or Warcraft/Starcraft) that won't let you log in with more than one user from one account. Of course, this requires maintaining a server.

FreakSoftware Wrote:It's very hard to get me to register any game. The last time I bought a game was when Deus Ex was new.

Are you insinuating that you pirate almost all of the games you have? Or you just don't play any new games? Either way sounds a little suspect to me. What's your beef with not wanting to throw a few bones at the people that provide a little entertainment for you? Your post strikes me as a little strange. Can you elaborate?

No, I'm saying I hate 95% of new games. The rest, I'm just too lazy to buy. Even still, nothing has really excited me as much as the old games did. Maybe it's just because I'm 5 years older. I definitely absolutely totally 100% agree that game play should be your #1 focus. Eye candy is just icing on the cake. However, it should be noted that some graphics actually are part of the game play and really enhance it. I don't mean soft shadows or water reflections, but stuff like poofs or the question marks in Islands Mini Golf when you drive a ball off into the drink. Mario 64 was another pretty good game.

Oh and if you game has any semblance of japanese anime in it, I won't even touch it. I know dozens of people that feel the same way. It's amazing to me this whole anime thing has taken the nation by storm. Anyway, that's OT.

As for serial numbers, what do you think Adobe and Macromedia do? I'm interested in knowing what they do.

I guess there won't be Adobe AND Macromedia for long. Just Adomacrobemedia or something.

Sadly, I often get enough out of a demo and just can't quite justify buying the game. This is mostly because I keep busy and I know I barely have time to play games I already own.

Currently "playing": WoW, Metroid Prime 2, An occasional game of Battlefield Vietnam, Space Barrage , Mario 64 DS (mini games more than the main game), or a retro game like Contra (original NES), Actraiser, Kid Icarus, etc. Really very little time (10-20 minutes?) is given to most of these, except maybe an occasional burst of a few hours of WoW. Anyway, it's interesting to note that NONE of these games require a serial number. Hmm...

I dislike serial numbers because it's one more thing to keep track of. I'm tired of passwords, usernames, and jumbled numbers. I'm always thinking I might lose one or lose a registration when I move a game from one computer to another.

WoW is refreshing in that you can basically install as many copies as you want anywhere, you are really just buying the account. It's that server side authentication that makes it nice. Only... you need an internet connection to play and that's not a great match for every game. Not yet anyway.